The Oscars
The movies lost touch with the populace two decades or so ago. One can point to “‘The Sopranos” as the true beginning of the end. This series was better than any film in the theatre, and in addition it had many episodes a season and had many seasons. This is what fans are truly looking for, depth. They want to find something and marinate in it. There’s this myth that today’s generations have short attention spans when nothing could be further from the truth. Which is that they have incredible sh*t detectors, they will not settle for mediocre, and when they find excellence, they have unlimited time for it.
But you cannot convince the older generations otherwise.
I remember when “The Sopranos” debuted in 1999, I told everybody I knew about it, but they pooh-poohed it, because how good could television be? Well, now we know that television is where you go to see human stories, the basis of the great films of yore. Big studio movies are spectacles. Often detached from reality. And I won’t say they can’t be enjoyable, but rarely do they move the needle culturally. In fact, few people see them in the theatre, if they see them at all. Sure, they end up streaming on TV, but a while after the initial hype. There’s a tsunami of product that buries them, there’s always something new.
Which is why Netflix drops all series episodes at once. It knows the paradigm has changed. If you can bother to get anyone’s attention at all, you want to keep it. To let people disappear for a week? There’s this thought about building audience over the water cooler, week by week, but that’s a construct that is about as dead as the double feature. Yet media keeps on trumpeting that which is done the old way, not only one episode per week, but the Oscars themselves.
Unlike the Grammys, the Oscars theoretically appeal to all demos. Music is seen as something for the youth…made by and consumed by if not adolescents, those with arrested development. Whereas movies…
Don’t forget the history. Long before television. It was a cultural rite, going to the theatre. And this was even the case for boomers, with the classics of the late sixties and seventies. But once “Jaws” and “Star Wars” showed how much money could be made, there was a rush to the dollar, and you ended up with homogenized products, or train-wrecks. And it’s not much different in music.
But what has happened as a result of the internet is the cost of production has gone down, the means are in everybody’s hands, and distribution is free…on YouTube…or close to free on Spotify, et al. And what has happened is the channel has become clogged, overwhelmed. Not only is there more product, but you’ve got people endlessly hyping their wares, looking for attention.
And there are new kinds of productions, by the so-called “influencers.” Dismissed by the oldsters, these creators have audiences larger than movies and their fans adore them in a way they no longer pay fealty to movie stars. Movie stars are inherently fake, they’re playing a role, whereas influencers, the others posting online, are evidencing their true identities, that’s the core of their productions, and that’s what the public can relate to.
But I’m not going to convince people who believe otherwise, even if I quote statistics, because for this to be true…means they must question their entire identity, re-evaluate what is true and false. And what is true is…
We are looking to belong. Ergo MAGA. It’s more than that, but it’s a club, with like-minded people, you can discuss your opinions, but you all agree on bedrock.
We used to be moviegoers, debating film. That’s been gone for years now. And most of the films are not worth it, they do not engender conversation, you see them and move on.
So…
The world has changed and those in power don’t want to admit it, although the cracks are appearing.
YouTube videos can reach more people than cable news. As for television news…it has now finally woken up, the audience is anemic, so the salaries of the presenters are going down, down, down.
The newspapers have already cratered. There are only two left, the “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal.” And they’re not so much about reach as influence.
In other words, everybody gets their news and information from their own source. Could be Facebook, could be TikTok, could be friends… As for commonality, good luck. The Tower of Babel society is here.
So they trump up the Oscars. It’s a veritable plethora of stories and bits and…
I stopped watching about a decade ago. I had a schedule conflict. After maybe forty years straight of appointment viewing. And what I found after the fact is I’d missed nothing, I didn’t feel hollow, I felt fine.
That’s the cultural rite. As for the pictures… I can’t remember the last time I went to a theatre. And I know people who still go on the weekend, as a religious experience, which I don’t get, I’d rather sit home and read a book or watch what I want when I want, on demand, on my television screen or my iPad or even my phone! I don’t want to waste any time.
As for the vaunted pictures this year, “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another”…the most glaring fact is how few have seen them. This is not “The Godfather,” never mind “Pulp Fiction”… It’s just like music, we keep hearing about Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan and Bruno Mars and the truth is never have the hits and the people who make them been smaller, had less impact.
But media can’t adjust for this. Because then it has to question itself. Furthermore, traditional media is about starting at the bottom and paying your dues. So journalism programs are wilting, but those who have a hankering, who want to get into this business, do it themselves.
But there’s no traditional chart, no traditional box office, none of the traditional markers of success. Other than in some cases view count. But influence? It’s nearly impossible to measure.
This is the world we live in. What makes people think if we can’t even agree on the facts politically, if everybody gets their information from a different source, that there is commonality re the movies. There’s not.
So we’ll see all these stories about fashion, faux-pas, we’ll see pictures of partiers, however…
These are no longer America’s heroes. They are two-dimensional vessels. To be derided as much as admired.
No, the heroes oftentimes are people most have never heard of. We’ve all got our own icons, our own people we spend time with. And to try to convince us to pay attention to the main event…that won’t work when we haven’t seen the films and we don’t care about the people in them or those who made them.
You could say I’m raining on their parade. People hate change. But the truth is it’s already happened. I’m not saying you can’t have the Oscars, I’m just saying that if you believe it has broad cultural impact in the way it did previously, you’re dreaming. And it’s not only the Balkanization of attention, it’s also the abdication of power. Movies have always been entertainment, but the best have touched your soul. And I’m not saying none of the nominees did this, it’s just that movies are no longer where people go for this feeling, this identification. Oftentimes what people are attracted to isn’t even mass at all.
It’s nearly impossible to get someone’s attention today, never mind hold it. Remember when all the film companies used to advertise on TV on Thursday to get people into the theatre on Friday? Who even watches linear TV anymore, other than old people, the same ones who are into and defending the importance of the Oscars.
And then there are the complaints about RottenTomatoes… No, if word of mouth, statistics, are bad, people don’t want to waste their time and money, they don’t want to take the risk. Just like they won’t buy a product with a low rating on Amazon.
It’s fine if you watch the Oscars. Have a good time, it’s cool with me. But don’t believe the hype, never has the cultural impact been lower.
And it ain’t gonna change. The movies are not coming back. The action has moved to television, and short form creations online. You can accept this, or you can live in the past.
Too much of our media/industrial complex is living in the past.
No wonder it is not trusted. You trust that which you can identify with that is speaking truth. Does a twenty or thirtysomething have a deep desire to waste four hours watching the Oscars?
Of course not.
And this is not a problem to be fixed, rather the past needs to be junked as we move into the future. Which is always coming. What did they call it, digital disruption? That’s not the only thing that killed film and the Oscars, the purveyors did a good job of tanking their industry, but change happens at an accelerated rate in today’s society, and it’s not top-down, but bottom-up, and most people are not aware of it until it has taken over.
The Oscars are like CDs, nostalgia. Or even vinyl.
I could go on, but I think you get the point, or you don’t.
We live in a knee-jerk society, people are baked in their ideas and feelings and won’t change them. But the joke is on them. And I won’t quite say the pageantry and fake gravitas of the Oscars is a joke, but it’s close. It’s akin to the Emperor’s New Clothes. But people just don’t want to give up on the past, it’s too upsetting. But the ship has sailed, movies will never recapture their glory. However, the desire for visual entertainment? That’s never been stronger. It’s just that the productions take a different form. And if one takes the time to investigate, one will experience cutting edge creativity. But that’s too hard for many people to accept.
TikTok is not the devil, nor is YouTube. They’re reality, iconic. Bigger than movies. You can have your awards show, but it’s futile to deny the truth. The cheese has been moved. The landscape is different. But it’s new and exciting, in some cases worse, but in others far better.
Don’t be stuck in your ways. Participate online. I know, I know, it’s frustrating, there are no instructions, there’s a learning curve. But the younger generations are used to this, video games don’t come with a manual…you forage, you flail, you figure it out. You’re on your own, looking for the rewards. That’s the world we live in today, it’s all grass roots, it’s all cottage industry, and that’s confusing, but it’s also very exciting.
